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^^  EXTRACTS   FROM 

An  Investigation 

INTO   THE 

PHYSICAL   PROPERTIES 

of  Books 

S  THEY  ARE  AT  PRESENT  PUBLISHED 

UNDERTAKEN   BY 

Ti?e  Society  of  Calligraphers 

PRICE  50  CENTS 


1919 

^Published  for  the  Society  of  Qalligraphers  by 

W.  A.  DWIGGINS  AND 

L.  B.  SIEGFRIED 

BOSTON 


EXTRACTS   FROM 

An  Investigation 

INTO   THE 

PHYSICAL   PROPERTIES 

of  Books 

AS  THEY  ARE  AT  PRESENT  PUBLISHED 

UNDERTAKEN  BY 

The  Society  of  Calligraphers 

PRICE  50  CENTS 


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BOSTON 


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': :  .dcfpVi?.ixiHT  1 9 1 9 

BY 

L.   B.   Siegfried 


NOTE 

The  accompanying  extracts  from  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  Society  of  Calligraphers  are  pub- 
lished with  the  approval  of  the  Society.  They 
form  a  part  of  the  exhaustive  and  unbiassed 
Report  returned  by  the  Committee  in  charge 
of  the  Investigation^  which  Report  will  be  pre- 
sented in  its  entirety  in  the  Annual  Bulletin. 
The  report  is  of  so  surprising  a  nature  that  it 
was  deemed  unwise  to  withhold  all  notice  of 
the  findings  until  the  annual  publication.  The 
Society^  therefore^  has  the  honour  to  present  cer- 
tain portions  of  the  Inquiry  together  with  an 
abstract  of  the  Committee' s  recommendations. 

W.  A.  DwiGGiNs,  Secretary 


384^  Boy  Is  ton  Street,  Boston 
December  i,  1919 


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A  chart  showing^^^J^^ntage  of  ex- 
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T  may  be  said  in  introduction  that  the  Society's 
Investigation  into  the  Physical  Properties  of 
Books  was  undertaken  by  a  special  committee 
whose  personnel  insured  that  its  consideration 
would  be  thorough  and  unbiassed. 

The  Committee  began  its  labour  by  an  examination  of 
all  books  published  in  America  since  the  year  1910. 
This  examination  forced  upon  the  investigators  the  con- 
clusion that  "All  Books  of  the  present  day  are  Badly 
Made."  The  conclusion  was  unanimous. 

Working  out  from  this  basic  fact  in  an  effort  to  arrive 
at  the  reasons  underlying  the  evil,  the  Committee  held 
numerous  sittings  in  consultation  with  men  concerned 
with  various  branches  of  printing  and  publishing.  From 
these  sittings  there  developed  a  mass  of  information  of 
an  unusual  and  stimulating  character. 

The  publishers  have  chosen  from  the  Record  of  the 
examination  a  few  examples,  not  because  they  are  extra- 
ordinary but  because  they  present  typical  points  of  view. 
They  are  transcribed  verbatim.  It  will  be  obvious  that  in 
certain  cases  it  has  been  no  more  than  courteous  to  sup- 
press the  names  of  the  persons  assisting  the  investiga- 
tion. For  the  sake  of  uniformity  it  has  been  deemed  wise 
to  follow  this  practice  throughout. 


I.  Mr.  B. 

Q.  Mr.  B ,  will  you  please  tell  the  committee  why 

you  printed  this  book  on  card-board? 

A.  To  make  it  the  right  thickness.  It  had  to  be  one  inch 

thick. 

—  Why  that  thick,  particularly.? 

—  Because  otherwise  it  would  not  sell.  If  a  book  isn't 
one  inch  thick  it  won't  sell. 

—  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  people  who  buy  books 
select  them  with  the  help  of  a  foot  rule.? 

—  They  have  to  have  some  standard  of  selection. 

—  So  that  it  is  your  practice  to  stretch  out  the  text  if 
it  is  too  short  by  printing  it  on  egg-box  stock.? 

—  Not  my  practice,  particularly.  All  publishers  do  it. 
We  are  obliged  to  use  this  and  other  means  to  bring  the 
book  up  to  a  proper  thickness.  You  must  remember  that 
our  prices  are  not  based  on  the  contents  of  a  book  but 
on  its  size. 

—  You  mention  other  methods.  Would  you  mind  tell- 
ing us  what  other  methods  you  use.? 

—  We  can  expand  the  letter-press  judiciously.  We 
limit  the  matter  to  seven  words  on  a  page,  say,  and  so 
get  a  greater  number  of  pages.  We  can  use  large  type 
and  can  lead  considerably. 

—  But  does  not  that  practice  hurt  the  appearance  of 
the  page .?  Make  a  poor-looking  page .? 

—  I  am  afraid  I  do  not  get  your  meaning. 

—  I  mean  to  say,  is  not  the  page  ugly  and  illegible 
when  you  expand  the  matter  to  that  extent.? 

—  You  don't  consider  the  look  of  a  page  in  making  a 
book.  That  is  a  thing  that  doesn't  enter  into  the  produc- 
tion of  a  book.  If  I  understand  you  correctly,  do  you 
mean  to  say  that  it  matters  how  a  book  looks  ? 

—  That  was  the  thought  in  my  mind. 

—  That's  a  new  idea  in  book  publishing ! 


—  You  were  speaking  of  the  pressure  of  industrial 
conditions  since  the  war.  Under  these  conditions  what 
percentage  of  the  traditions  of  the  craft  can  you  pre- 
serve, would  you  say? 

—  The  traditions  of  what  craft  ? 

—  The  craft  of  printing,  obviously.  What  I  am  trying 
to  get  at  is  this : — There  are  certain  precise  and  matured 
standards  of  workmanship  in  the  printing  craft;  these 
standards  are  the  results  of  experiment  through  nearly 
five  hundred  years.  How  far  are  these  standards  effec- 
tive under  your  present-day  conditions  .f* 

—  Those  standards,  so  far  as  I  know  anything  about 
them,  are  what  you  would  call  academic.  In  the  first 
place,  book-manufacturing  is  not  a  craft,  it  is  a  business. 
As  for  standards  of  workmanship  —  I  can  understand 
the  term  in  connection  with  cabinet-making,  for  exam- 
ple, or  tailoring,  but  I  should  not  apply  the  expression 
to  books.  You  do  not  talk  about  the  "standards  of  work- 
manship" in  making  soap,  do  you.? 

—  Then  in  your  mind  there  does  not  linger  any 
atmosphere  of  an  art  about  the  making  of  books .? 

—  When  you  talk  about  "atmosphere"  you  have  me 
out  of  my  depth.  There  isn't  any  atmosphere  of  art  lin- 
gering about  making  soap,  is  there.? 

—  You  would  class  soap-making  with  book-making.? 

—  I  can  see  no  reason  why  not. 

—  May  I  ask  why  you  were  selected  by Com- 
pany to  manage  their  manufacturing  department.? 

—  Really,  I  must  say  that  you  overstep  the  borders  — 

—  Please  do  not  misinterpret  my  question.  It  is  really 
pertinent  to  the  inquiry. 

—  It  should  certainly  be  obvious  why  a  man  is  chosen 
for  a  given  position.  I  am  employed  to  earn  a  satisfac- 
tory return  on  the  share-holders'  investment.  Is  that  the 
information  you  want.? 

—  I  think  that  is  what  we  want.  Would  you  then  con- 
sider yourself  as  happily  employed  in  making  soap  as  in 
making  books .? 


—  Quite  as  well  employed,  if  making  soap  paid  the 
dividend. 

—  While  we  are  on  this  subject,  may  I  ask  you  how 
you  choose  the  artists  who  make  your  illustrations  ? 

—  My  practice  is  to  select  an  illustrator  whose  name 
is  well  known. 

—  Is  that  the  only  point  you  consider? 

—  I  should  say,  yes.  I  am  not  aware  of  any  other  rea- 
son for  spending  money  on  this  feature.  It  is  always  an 
uncertain  detail  and  this  way  of  making  a  choice  puts 
the  matter  on  a  safe  basis. 

—  It  is  sometimes  assumed  that  the  illustrations 
sholild  have  a  sympathetic  bearing  on  the  story.  Does 
not  that  consideration  have  some  weight  with  you  in 
choosing  your  artist.? 

—  None,  I  should  say.  You  see,  the  pictures  are  not 
really  a  necessary  part  of  the  book.  They  are  a  kind  of 
frill  that  the  public  has  got  in  the  way  of  expecting,  and 
we  have  to  put  them  in.  Illustrations  as  a  rule  stand  us 
as  a  dead  loss  unless  they  are  made  by  a  well-known 
artist.  Then,  of  course,  they  help  sell  the  book. 


II.  Mr.  McG. 

A.  The  gentlemen  of  the  committee  must  remember 
that  the  book-publishing  business  is  a  gamble.  Each  new 
issue,  particularly  in  the  department  of  fiction,  is  a 
highly  adventurous  risk.  Our  percentage  of  blanks 
would  astonish  you  if  we  dared  to  state  it.  But  any  book 
may  turn  out  a  best-seller.  This  hope  keeps  us  going.  It 
is  absolutely  a  gamble,  as  I  say.  You  can  see  that  under 
these  conditions  we  cannot  spend  very  much  money  on 
non-essentials.  We  have  to  strip  the  books  down  to  the 
barest  necessities. 

Personally  I  should  like  to  see  the  firm  put  out  noth- 
ing that  is  not  well  designed  and  well  printed.  But  as 


an  agent  of  the  firm  I  have  to  set  aside  my  personal 
preferences.  The  directors  are  very  much  down  on  what 
they  call  art. 

—  Has  the  firm  ever  looked  into  the  question  of  good 
workmanship  as  a  possible  aid  to  sales  ? 

—  Not  under  the  present  management.  The  founder 
looked  at  good  work  as  more  or  less  a  marketing  advan- 
tage. 

—  What  do  you  think  caused  the  present  manage- 
ment to  change  from  that  opinion  ? 

—  They  haven't  changed.  They  never  had  it.  They  get 
at  the  matter  from  another  angle  altogether.  Their  pol- 
icy is  to  reduce  the  production  cost  to  the  minimum. 
The  minimum  in  theory  would  be  reached  when  the  pub- 
lic complained.  The  public  hasn't  complained,  so  you 
can't  tell  when  to  stop  cheapening. 

You  see  the  directors  don't  look  at  a  book  as  a  fabri- 
cated thing  at  all.  Books  are  merely  something  to  sell  — 
merchandise.  Our  management  —  and  all  the  rest  of 
them,  for  that  matter  —  come  from  the  selling  side  of 
the  business  and  do  not  have  any  pride  in  the  product. 

Old  Mr. was  a  publisher  because  he  liked  books. 

That  made  an  entirely  different  policy  in  the  old  firm,  of 
course. 

—  To  get  back  to  the  question  of  good  workmanship 
helping  sales :  —  Here  are  two  books  published  abroad 
to  be  sold  at  50  cents  and  80  cents.  They  can  very  well 
be  called  works  of  art.  Do  you  not  think  that  these  well 
designed  paper  covers  would  stand  out  among  other 
books  and  invite  customers  to  themselves  ? 

—  Undoubtedly  they  would. 

—  Have  you  ever  tried  the  experiment  of  putting  out 
editions  in  paper  covers  of  attractive  design  ? 

—  Never.  It  couldn't  be  done.  People  wouldn't  buy 
them. 

—  But  you  said  a  moment  ago  — 

Moreover  the  difference  of  cost  between  cheap 

cloth  sides  and  paper  covers  of  the  kind  you  have  there 
is  so  slight  that  it  wouldn't  pay  to  try  the  experiment. 


People  want  stiff  board  covers.  It  doesn't  much  matter 
what  is  inside,  but  they  insist  on  board  covers. 

—  How  do  you  arrive  at  that  fact } 
.  —  Through  our  salesmen. 

—  And  you  say  that  paper  covers  have  never  been 
tried? 

—  Never.  None  of  our  travellers  would  go  out  on  the 
road  with  a  sample  in  paper  covers. 

—  A  little  while  ago  you  said  something  about  your 
salesmen  helping  you  to  an  understanding  of  the  public 
taste.  I  infer  that  you  get  considerable  help  from  this 
source.^ 

—  Most  valuable  help  indeed.  We  depend  entirely  on 
the  reports  the  sales  force  turns  in  in  these  matters.  The 
salesmen  are  in  direct  contact  with  the  retailers  and  are 
naturally  in  a  position  to  feel  the  public  pulse,  so  to 
speak.  Their  help  is  invaluable.  They  can  anticipate  the 
demand  very  often. 

—  I  had  reference  more  particularly  to  the  way  books 
are  made. 

—  Oh,  on  that  point  too.  We  never  make  a  final  de- 
cision on  a  cover  design,  for  instance,  without  showing 
it  to  the  salesmen.  They  very  often  make  valuable  sug- 
gestions as  to  changes  of  colour,  etc.  They  run  largely  to 
red. 

—  It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  designing  of  the 
books  is  very  much  in  the  hands  of  the  salesmen.^ 

—  Quite  in  their  hands. 

—  Are  the  office-boys  often  called  into  consultation  ? 

—  Mr. finds  his  stenographer  a  very  great  help 

in  passing  upon  certain  points  —  illustrations,  etc. 

—  Does  it  appear  to  you  that  the  sales  department 
would  be  the  one  best  qualified  to  pass  on  points  of 
design  ? 

—  Well,  there,  you  see  —  the  books  have  to  be  sold  — 
that  is  what  we  make  them  for  —  and  the  sales  depart- 
ment is  the  one  in  closest  touch  with  the  people  that  buy 


the  books  —  that  knows  just  what  they  want. 

—  The  standards  of  quality,  then,  are  set  by  the  peo- 
ple who  buy  the  books  ? 

—  Oh,  absolutely  so.  How  else  would  you  move  the 
books  .^  It  is  a  merchandising  proposition,  you  must 
remember. 

—  But  do  you  not  think  that  people  would  buy  de- 
cently made  books  as  willingly  as  poorly  made  books  .f* 

—  At  the  same  price,  yes.  No  question  about  it.  The 
book-buying  public  doesn't  worry  its  head  about  the  way 
books  are  made.  It  doesn't  know  anything  about  it.  And 
well  made  books  cost  more.  The  trade  is  committed  to 
a  dollar-and-a-half  article  and  can't  risk  going  above  it. 

—  Your  opinion  is  that  the  price  of  a  well  made  book 
would  be  so  high  as  to  prevent  its  sale.? 

—  In  the  case  of  fiction,  yes.  The  price  has  become 
almost  a  fixture. 

—  We  shall  have  to  go  outside  of  fiction,  then,  to  look 
for  well  made  books  ? 

— ■  It  amounts  to  that. 
'    — You  have  said  that  certain  unproductive  factors 
prevent  you  from  spending  what  you  otherwise  might  on 
good  workmanship.  What  specific  factors  would  you 
mention .? 

—  Plates  —  electros.  We  plate  everything  on  the 
chance  of  its  running  into  several  printings.  80  per  cent 
of  the  books  are  not  reprinted.  You  can  see  that  the 
money  tied  up  in  plates  is  a  very  considerable  sum,  and, 
as  I  say,  80  per  cent  of  it  is  dead  loss.  We  are  obliged  to 
take  the  chance,  however. 

—  Has  any  remedy  occurred  to  you  ? 

—  If  stereotyping  could  be  revived  as  an  accurate 
process  it  might  help  us  out.  It  would  cost  much  less  to 
make  and  to  store  paper  matrices  than  to  make  electro- 
types. The  difficulty  here  is  that  no  one  knows  how  to 
make  good  stereotypes,  and  the  stereotype  plates  at  their 
best  are  more  trouble  to  make  ready.  Trouble  with  the 
press-room,  you  see. 

—  Is  it  possible  under  good  conditions  to  get  satisfac- 


tory  results  from  stereotype  plates  ? 

—  Unquestionably.  The  books  printed  from  this  kind 
of  plates  in  the  first  days  of  the  invention  are  entirely 
satisfactory. 


III.  Mr.  L. 

Q.  Can  a  trade-edition  book  be  well  made  and  sell  for 
$1.50? 

—  That  depends  on  how  high  you  set  your  standard. 

—  Well,  let  us  not  be  too  rigorous.  Can  it  be  made 
better,  say,  than  this  book.? 

—  Beyond  question.  It  will  all  depend  upon  whether 
or  not  the  printer  has  a  few  lingering  memories  of  the 
standards  of  printing. 

—  But  should  not  the  setting  of  standards  come  from 
the  publisher  ? 

—  Oh  yes,  under  ideal  conditions.  Both  printer  and 
publisher  should  have  a  hand  in  it. 

—  How  would  you  make  a  book  of  fiction  to  be  sold 
for  $1.50.? 

—  Well,  such  a  book  could  have  a  good  title-page  as 
cheaply  as  a  bad  one  —  and  the  whole  typographic 
scheme  would  cost  no  more  if  it  were  logically  done  in- 
stead of  crudely  strung  together.  By  logically  done  I 
mean  with  well  proportioned,  practicable  margins  and 
legible  headings,  etc.  The  press-work  on  books  is  reason- 
ably good  but  the  "lay-out"  or  design  is  entirely  neg- 
lected. It  calls  for  a  little  planning,  of  course,  but  no 
more  than  should  be  available  in  any  reputable  plant. 
It  isn't  so  much  that  these  books  are  badly  planned  as  it 
is  that  they  are  not  planned  at  all. 

—  But  most  printing  firms  have  a  planning  depart- 
ment, do  they  not  ? 

—  The  planning  in  most  presses  is  concerned  with  the 
handling  of  material,  not  with  the  designing  of  material. 
This  is  no  doubt  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Taylor  System 
has  not  yet  got  around  to  Aesthetic  Efficiency. 


—  Are  not  the  typographical  unions  concerned  to 
train  their  men  on  these  points  of  design  that  you  men- 
tion? 

—  The  unions  have  only  one  idea  —  and  it  is  not  con- 
cerned with  the  improvement  of  printing. 

— ^Are  there  any  trade  schools  that  teach  these 
things?  Are  not  the  employers'  associations  promoting 
schools  to  train  men  in  the  craft? 

—  The  employers'  associations  have  one  idea  —  a 
little  different  from  the  idea  of  the  unions,  perhaps,  but 
not  concerned  with  the  improvement  of  printing.  There 
are  trade  schools  but  they  teach  only  the  mechanics  of 
the  craft. 

—  Apparently,  then,  there  is  no  place  in  this  country 
where  one  can  learn  how  to  design  printing  ? 

—  You  can  safely  say  that  there  is  no  such  place. 


IV.  Mr.  a. 

Q.  What  is  your  own  opinion  on  the  subject  of  illustra- 
tions in  books  ? 

—  In  what  particular  do  you  mean? 

—  I  mean,  do  you  think  that  illustrations  help  or 
hinder  the  quality  of  a  book  ? 

—  The  question  is  too  general  to  be  answered  easily. 
May  I  ask  you  to  be  more  specific  ? 

—  For  example,  here  is  a  "best-seller"  with  several  — 
five  or  six  —  half-tone  illustrations.  Do  you  consider 
that  these  pictures  make  the  book  a  more  complete  thing 
as  a  specimen  of  book-making  ? 

—  Most  certainly  not. 

—  Then  would  you  say  that  illustrations  in  such 
books  were  a  detraction  ? 

—  Illustrations  such  as  these,  yes.  Though  it  would  be 
hard  to  detract  from  this  particular  book. 

—  It  is  a  standard  book  —  a  standard  type  of  book. 

—  I  fear  that  it  is. 

—  What  kind  of  illustrations  would  you  favour? 


—  For  many  books,  none  at  all.  In  these  books  of  cur- 
rent fiction  the  pictures  are  either  futile  or  else  detri- 
mental to  the  development  of  the  plot.  They  give  the 
game  away,  so  to  speak,  when  the  author  may  wish  to 
hold  the  story  in  suspense.  The  effort  to  avoid  this  disas- 
ter accounts  for  the  multitude  of  undramatic  pictures 
you  see  in  books. 

—  Your  theory  of  no  pictures  should  appeal  to  the 
publishers  but  I  doubt  if  the  illustrators  will  stand  with 
you. 

—  Illustration  is  a  trade  as  well  as  an  art. 

—  True.  But  we  are  trying  to  limit  the  inquiry  to  the 
artistic  side  at  present.  When,  then,  according  to  your 
deductions,  would  illustrations  be  called  for? 

—  When  they  can  make  a  stage-setting  for  the  story. 
When  they  ornament  it  or  suggest  it,  perhaps,  instead  of 
reveal  it.  Impressions  and  "atmosphere"  instead  of  lit- 
eral diagrams  with  a  cross  marking  the  spot  where,  etc. 

—  But  perhaps  people  like  the  cross  marking  the  spot 
where. 

—  We  are  limiting  the  discussion  to  the  artistic  side, 
are  we  not? 

—  What  about  the  half-tone  process  of  engraving? 

—  The  process  is  a  way  of  doing  a  thing  that  cannot 
be  done  cheaply  by  any  other  means. 

—  Do  you  consider  it  a  process  that  adds  to  the  artis- 
tic possibilities  of  book  printing? 

—  You  mean  according  to  the  standards  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  earlier  days  of  the  craft? 

—  I  do.  Yes. 

—  According  to  those  standards  it  seems  to  me  that 
half-tones  will  always  have  to  be  considered  as  necessi- 
ties forced  upon  the  book-printer.  They  demand  a  kind 
of  paper  that  is  never  a  satisfactory  book-paper.  In  the 
case  of  the  kind  of  books  we  are  talking  about  the  relief 
line  methods  have  always  given  the  most  artistic  results, 
because  they  are  so  closely  related  to  the  character  of 
type. 

One  regrets,  however,  to  give  up  the  chances  for  tonal 


designs  that  the  half-tone  process  provides.  Probably  the 
designers  and  printers  will  work  out  a  satisfactory  rela- 
tion between  half-tones  and  type  when  the  craze  for 
photographic  detail  passes  a  little.  As  things  stand,  I 
should  say  that  the  best  results  are  to  be  had  with  un- 
coated  book-papers  and  with  line  plates.  It  is  true  books 
are  rarely  illustrated  this  way  —  current  fiction,  I  mean 
—  but  the  method  might  be  used  to  produce  a  very 
attractive  and  unusual  result. 

—  Then  you  would  condemn  the  use  of  half-tones  in 
this  kind  of  books  ? 

—  If  you  mean  the  usual  kind  of  half-tones  printed 
separately  and  inserted,  I  do.  But  if  you  are  making  a 
book  of  travel,  for  example,  the  half-tones  from  photo- 
graphs explain  and  justify  themselves. 

But  on  this  whole  subject  of  book  illustration  it  strikes 
me  that  if  you  are  to  make  the  design  from  the  start  you 
might  as  well  make  it  in  harmony  with  the  kind  of  paper 
and  printing  you  are  planning  to  use,  and  get  all  the 
artistic  advantage  of  fitting  your  means  to  your  limita- 
tions. 

—  Are  you  familiar  with  the  Christy-Holbein  Test.^ 

—  Yes.  That  is  to  say,  I  have  heard  of  your  applying 
it',  and  remember  that  the  percentages  were  very  much 
against  Holbein. 

—  Ninety-three  to  seven,  on  an  average.  How  do  you 
explain  such  a  crudity  of  taste  in  these  groups  of  people 
otherwise  well  educated  ? 

—  By  the  deduction  that  they  are  not  educated.  That 
is  to  say  that  these  people,  cultivated  in  other  ways,  re- 
act precisely  like  savages  when  confronted  with  pictures 
or  drawings.  They  "go  for"  the  tinsel  and  glitter  and  are 
opaque  to  the  higher  and  more  civilized  values.  They  get 
the  most  pleasure  from  drawings  that  they  think  they 
could  make  themselves.  This  is  the  basis  of  the  Eight- 
year-old  Formula  widely  applied  in  the  department  of 
newspaper  comics :  "Make  your  drawing  so  that  it  can 


be  understood  by  a  child  eight  years  old." 

All  of  this  is  clearly  lack  of  training,  because  their 
taste  is  good  in  other  matters  —  music,  for  example,  and 
house  furnishings. 

—  You  would  deduce,  then,  that  the  periodical  and 
book-publishing  industry  has  failed  to  train  the  taste  of 
its  public  in  such  matters  f 

—  It  has  done  worse :  it  has  depraved  that  taste.  Be- 
cause there  was,  not  very  long  ago,  a  fine  tradition  in  this 
country  in  the  line  of  illustration. 

—  Why  should  the  publishers  find  any  advantage  in 
depraving  the  taste  of  the  public  —  as  you  say  they  have 
done  ? 

—  Because  they  turned  their  backs  on  the  standards 
of  the  publishing  business  and  became  merchandisers 
solely.  They  had  to  sell  the  goods  and  they  had  to  "sell" 
a  big  new  public.  The  quickest  way  to  this  public  — 
through  flash-and-crash  tactics  —  they  adopted.  And 
naturally  ran  themselves  and  the  public  down  hill. 

—  May  there  not  be  other  sides  to  it,  too  ?  May  it  not 
be  that  the  art  schools  are  not  now  producing  draughts- 
men of  a  calibre  to  support  the  fine  tradition  you  men- 
tion } 

—  That  may  have  something  to  do  with  it.  But  even 
that  is  mixed  up  with  the  other.  I  think  that  the  chief 
difficulty  is  with  the  publishers. 

— -And  the  public.'* 

—  The  public  will  follow  if  the  publishers  lead. 


V.  Mr.  S. 

A.  Are  you  not  making  the  mistake  of  keeping  too  close 
to  the  publishers }  It  seems  to  me  that  you  will  not  get  at 
all  the  facts  behind  the  situation  until  you  get  in  touch 
with  the  people  we  sell  the  books  to.  They  are  the  factors 
that  bring  about  the  conditions  you  object  to.  The  pub- 
lisher is  merely  a  machine  for  selling  the  public  what  it 
wants. 


—  Then  the  pubUsher  has  no  selective  function? 

—  Absolutely  none. 

—  How  does  the  public  bring  about  the  condition  we 
object  to? 

—  Obviously  by  buying  the  books. 

—  I  mean  to  say,  how  does  the  public  prevail  upon 
you  to  sell  it  trashy  books  instead  of  well  made  books  ? 

—  The  public  is  entirely  uneducated  on  the  subject  of 
books,  in  your  sense.  People  know  nothing  at  all  about 
paper  or  printing  or  pictures  or  things  of  that  sort.  One 
book  is  as  good  as  another  to  any  educated  man  so  long 
as  he  can  read  it.  He  doesn't  know  that  there  is  any  such 
thing  as  good  printing  or  bad  printing  or  good  or  bad 
taste  in  making  books.  Under  these  conditions  we  should 
be  fools  to  spend  money  on  features  that  do  not  have  any 
bearing  on  sales.  It's  a  simple  business  proposition. 

—  Would  the  public  that  you  are  discussing  buy  well 
made  books  as  willingly  as  trashy  books  ? 

—  Oh,  absolutely.  It's  the  books  they  are  interested  in 
—  what  they  contain,  not  how  they  are  made.  They 
wouldn't  know  the  difference. 


VI.  Mr.  G. 

A.  What's  the  use  of  talking  about  standards  in  connec- 
tion with  things  like  these?  These  are  not  books.  They 
aren't  fit  to  wad  a  gun  with.  I  wouldn't  have  them  in  the 
house.  Nobody  pays  any  attention  to  stuff  like  that. 

There  isn't  what  you  would  call  a  book  on  the  table, 
except  this  one,  perhaps.  That's  printed  in  England  and 
sent  over  in  sheets  and  bound  on  this  side.  But  that  one 
is  set  in  a  bastard  Caslon.  It  isn't  the  original  Caslon 
but  a  revision  with  the  descenders  cut  off.  See  how  he's 
got  his  O  upside  down ! 

Those  others  —  what's  the  use  of  talking  about  them 
at  all?  It  reminds  me  of  the  story  about  the  China- 
man— 

—  But,  Mr. ,  do  you  not  think  it  possible  to  get 


up  this  class  of  books  in  a  manner  that  would  suit  you 
better? 

—  You  can't  hope  to  get  anything  like  a  decent  book 
until  you  do  away  with  the  damnable  cheap  paper  and 
the  vile  types.  And  then  you  will  have  to  start  in  and 
teach  the  printer  how  to  print.  There  aren't  more  than  a 
half  a  dozen  presses  in  the  country  that  know  how  to 
print.  Most  printing  looks  like  it  had  been  done  with 
apple-butter  on  a  hay-press  — 

—  What  you  say  is  unhappily  true.  What  we  are  try- 
ing to  find  out  are  the  causes  of  this  state  of  things. 

—  The  causes  are  everywhere  —  all  through  the  rattle- 
trap, cheap-jack,  shoddy  work  that  is  being  done  in 
every  kind  of  trade.  Nobody  cares  for  making  decent 
things  any  more. 

The  only  cure  is  to  get  back  to  decent  standards  of 
workmanship  in  everything  again.  But  the  case  seems  to 
me  to  be  hopeless.  I  try  to  do  printing  up  to  a  decent 
standard  —  and  that  is  about  all  any  of  us  can  do.  I 
don't  believe  you  can  hope  to  do  much  good  through 
your  societies  and  investigations.  I  believe  in  each  one 
doing  his  own  job  in  the  best  way  he  knows  how.  That's 
the  only  way  you  can  raise  the  standard.  It's  the  work 
you  turn  out  that  counts. 


AN  ABSTRACT  OF  THE 
COMMITTEE'S  RECOMMENDATIONS 


TWO  main  questions  resulting  from  the  Inquiry 
present  themselves  to  the  Committee.  The  first 
question  is :  —  Is  it  within  the  power  of  the  Society  of 
Calligraphers,  of  any  society,  or  of  Society  itself,  to  re- 
store to  the  printing  of  books  a  standard  of  good  work? 
The  second  and  major  question :  —  Are  books  necessary 
to  the  present  social  state? 

I.  When  the  Committee  began  its  work  it  assumed  as  a 
matter  of  course  that  the  established  standards  of  print- 
ing would  serve  it  as  guide-posts  and  criteria.  It  expected 
to  traverse  a  country  where  the  highways  were  in  need  of 
repair,  perhaps,  and  the  marks  of  direction  dim,  but  on 
the  whole  a  negotiable  country.  It  found  a  very  different 
state  of  things. 

Instead  of  roads  to  be  followed  with  some  excusable 
discomfort  it  found  not  even  trails.  Such  highways  as 
had  once  been  charted  were  obliterated.  Not  only  guide- 
posts  but  the  most  elementary  blaze-marks  were  over- 
grown and  lost  beyond  any  hope  of  recovery.  Instead  of 
following  the  planned  course  of  visit  and  consultation 
the  Committee  was  forced  to  reorganize  itself  into  an 
expedition  of  discovery.  It  has  been  fortunate  to  return 
at  all. 

The  collected  data  of  the  exploration  can  lead  to  but 
one  conclusion :  That  the  whole  fabric  of  Standards  of 
Workmanship  will  have  to  be  rebuilt  from  the  beginning. 
Whether  this  can  be  done  under  the  present  state  of 
society  is  a  matter  to  be  discussed  in  connection  with 
the  second  question. 

II.  Are  books  necessary  to  the  present  social  state?  The 
Committee's  finding  is,  unanimously  and  conclusively, 
No. 


During  the  past  twenty  years  many  influences  have 
been  at  work  to  wean  mankind  from  the  use  of  books. 
Automobiles,  the  motion-picture  drama,  professional 
athletics,  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  —  these  operated 
even  before  the  Great  War  to  discourage  the  habit  of 
reading.  Since  the  war  the  progress  of  society  —  cul- 
minating, in  America,  in  the  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat —  has  effectually  completed  the  process.  Books 
as  an  element  vital  to  the  welfare  of  the  race  have  been 
eliminated. 

The  Society  of  Calligraphers  is  thus  freed  at  one 
stroke  from  the  obligations  implied  in  the  first  question. 
But  there  are  still  books  in  existence,  and  for  these  the 
Committee  feels  a  professional  concern.  For  the  In- 
vestigation, if  it  has  done  nothing  else,  has  disclosed  one 
most  cogent  and  ineluctable  fact :  that  wherever  there  is 
contact  between  books  and  the  public,  the  effect  upon 
the  books  is  deleterious. 

So  far  as  the  immediate  situation  is  concerned,  the 
public,  by  discontinuing  the  contact,  has  obviated  the 
danger.  But  in  a  period  of  revolution  no  condition  can 
be  taken  for  granted  as  fixed.  It  is  quite  within  the 
range  of  possibility  that  the  public,  under  compulsion, 
may  turn  again  to  books  and  reading ;  and  this,  the  Com- 
mittee believes,  is  a  contingency  the  Society  should  be 
prepared  to  meet. 

Publishers  as  a  group  promise,  for  the  immediate 
future,  to  be  an  harassed  and  unimpressionable  body. 
Influence  upon  them  can  be  brought  to  bear  only 
through  public  demand.  Should  a  public  demand  for 
books  revive,  it  will  be  imperative  for  the  Society  either 
to  quench  it  altogether — a  project  which  the  Committee 
has  discarded  as  visionary  —  or  to  take  it  in  hand  at  its 
inception  and  give  it  constructive  shape  by  forcing  upon 
public  attention  such  knowledge  of  the  more  elementary 
points  of  good  taste  as  shall  make  impossible  the  further 
prostitution  of  standards.  As  the  most  direct  means  to- 
this  end  it  is  urgently  recommended  by  the  Committee 
that  the  Society  take  up  at  once  the  study  of  advertising. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 

STAMPED  BELOW                                    , 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS        | 

WILL   BE   ASSESSED    FOR    FAILURE  TO   RETURN 
THIS    BOOK   ON    THE    DATE   DUE.    THE   PENALTY             | 
WILL  IN9REASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY    AND     TO     $t.OO     ON     THE    SEVENTH     DAY 
OVERDUE. 

JUL     ;*   1837 

V 

j\i!  h  1 1S5r^ 

•^AP  1  9  19B7 

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GaylordBros 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N   Y. 

PAT.  JAM.  21.  1908 


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